


Love unfurled at sea

by itz_blakey



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Asexual Upgraded Connor | RK900, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Fisherman Gavin, Gavin Reed Being Less of an Asshole, Gay Disaster Gavin Reed, Getting Together, I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, Mentioned Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Merman Nines, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29981844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itz_blakey/pseuds/itz_blakey
Summary: Gavin expects a lot of things at work. He expects his coworkers to annoy him. He expects to hate every second he's on that dumb boat. What Gavin definitely doesn't expect at work is to accidentally catch a merman.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Love unfurled at sea

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be honest with you, this fic is a mess. :')

Gavin hated this. He hated this job more than anything else in the world. That was all he could think as he pulled yet another fishing net full of fish onto the boat with his coworker what's his face. This time it was unusually heavy.

Once the net was on the boat and they could view the content of it, it became pretty clear why it was even heavier than normally.

"Holy shit.", Gavin muttered.

Among all the fish he was so used to seeing was a merman, entangled in their net. An actual merman. His tail was massive and glistened in the sun in its bright white glory. The fins were a transparent light blue. There were gills on the sides of his neck but other than that his upper body looked almost entirely human.

The mythical creature turned his head to look at the men who captured him. His wet dark brown hair was stuck to his gorgeous face, piercing blue-grey eyes staring at Gavin and his coworker. Gavin's breath hitched at the intensity of his stare.

He looked at his speechless coworker and back at the mercreature. He was the first one to move towards him. When he visibly tensed as Gavin crouched down in front of him, Gavin tried his best to shoot him a reassuring smile. It probably looked a little crooked. He wasn't sure if he would understand English, so hopefully he would understand the gesture. 

It wasn't until Gavin started untangling the merman's tail from the fishing net, that his coworker snapped out of his intial shock and asked: "What the hell are you doing?".

"I'm getting him out of the net, duh.", Gavin replied nonchalantly. The merman looked at him in surprise. Maybe he did understand English.

"But why? Do you realise we just discovered a new species?", the guy said, looking bewildered.

"I don't give a shit.", Gavin muttered. There's no way in hell he was going to be the reason this merman would possibly be subjected to experiments. He may be an insufferable asshole but he wasn't some soulless monster. After a while of fiddling with the fishing net, he got the merman out.

When his coworker tried to grab the creature, possibly a last attempt at stopping Gavin from freeing him, Gavin shoved him hard, internally thanking the merman for the opportunity to do so. That guy was so annoying. He stumbled back and fell on his ass.

"Now, how do I best get you back into the water...", Gavin mumbled, more to himself than to the merman. He guided one of his arms around his own neck and lifted him up by putting his right hand underneath his tail and his left arm around his waist. Who'd have thought he would be bridal carrying a merman one day? He sure as fuck didn't.

"Fuck, you're heavy.", Gavin grunted, struggling but managing to carry him towards the starboard of the boat.

"Wow, thanks.", the merman muttered, his voice laced with sarcasm, earning a laugh from Gavin. He had a nice voice, Gavin noticed.

Once they arrived at the starboard, Gavin glanced at the man in his arms. His breath hitched again, seeing the gorgeous face from up close now. 

_'God damn it, could you stop being a gay disaster for one second?'_ , he mentally asked himself.

After the merman's beauty left him at a loss for words for a few seconds, he managed to stammer: "Uh.. So, do I just drop you in the water or...".

The man in his arms replied: "Yeah, I'll be fine.". He looked up at him with a smile and, speaking softly, added: "Thank you.". 

Gavin returned the smile and with a "Nice meeting you." let him slip from his arms and fall into the water with a loud splash. The creature resurfaced and waved Gavin goodbye before swiftly swimming away.

His coworker who was now standing again, yelled: "What the hell?". Gavin just shrugged.

The annoying guy he couldn't care less about stormed off, cursing under his breath, muttering something about going on break.

After work, Gavin decided to go to the beach. He sat on a towel in a secluded area, only wearing his swim shorts despite having no intention of going into the water. No one ever went to this part of the beach because of some bullshit story about it being haunted. He stared at the waves as they fled from the shore and crashed back onto it in a slow rhythm, thinking about his day. It still felt surreal. Had he really held an actual merman in his arms?

"Hello.", a strangely familiar voice said.

Gavin's head jerked up to stare at the merman from earlier. He was not expecting to see him again and yet there he was, pulling himself towards him on the land.

"Mind if I join you?", he asked. Not trusting his voice, Gavin just nodded and the merman pulled himself onto the towel, sitting down next to him.

He dusted some sand off of his wet tail before speaking again: "Hi, I'm Nines. What's your name?".

"Gavin.", he responded.

"That's a lovely name.", Nines said. And somehow this guy simply complimenting his name had Gavin blushing. To answer his question to himself earlier, no, aparrently he could not stop being a gay disaster for one second.

"You think so?", he asked.

Nines nodded. "A lovely name for a lovely person.", he mused.

"You must have the wrong guy, there's nothing lovely about me.", Gavin laughed, "I fucking suck.".

Nines decided not to comment on the self-depricating remark and instead said: "I was hoping you'd be here. I really wanted to see you again.". Gavin looked at him in disbelief.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you today. I thought maybe we could... Get to know each other?", Nines answered the human's unspoken 'why?'. 

Gavin sat in stunned silence for a moment. He wanted to get to know him? Him? Gavin Reed?

"Uh... Sure.", he said before he could start overthinking this, "How do you plan on doing that though?".

"We can just keep meeting here when nobody else is around.", Nines suggested. And that was what they agreed to do. 

They met there every evening. Gavin's friend Tina was starting to become suspicious about his sudden enthusiasm to go to the beach so often. Gavin told her that he just liked it there because he got to be alone. Tina didn't buy that but let it go, figuring Gavin would tell her what was going on when he wanted to. Over time him and Nines grew closer and hanging out with Nines became less of an 'oh my god, I'm talking to a merman' moment and the surrealness of it all vanished. 

Some days they talked about Nines' life in the ocean. Gavin learned that Nines had a brother named Connor who was very adamant that Nines shouldn't try to meet him again. He also learned that they teach them human languages at school which explained Nines' knowledge of English. Nines also trusted him enough to let him know that he is asexual. 

Gavin, having the sensibility of a pile of rocks, just said: "Cool." and showed him two awkward thumbs up.

Other days Nines wanted to hear everything about Gavin and his life. On those days, he'd lay down and rest his head on Gavin's lap, the waves washing over his tail every few seconds. He'd look up at him with a fond smile and listen to him talk about his brother Elijah or his best friend Tina as the human subconciously started playing with his hair. Gavin found that he really liked the way Nines' hair became slightly curly when it dried. He liked a lot of things about Nines. Maybe a little too much for his own good.

One evening it became especially late. Nines had taken an interest in human board games after the human had told him about them and asked Gavin to bring one. Gavin complied and brought Monopoly, claiming: "You're going down".

"We'll see about that.", Nines retorted grinning.

A few hours into the game and Nines being way too good at this game for his first time playing it and Gavin was flipping him off and cursing at him for what felt like the billionth time that night. Gavin had no idea what time it was and he frankly didn't care. The sun was gone and the stars were visible on the night sky.

They froze when they heard footsteps approaching. "Gavin?", a voice unfamiliar to Nines but very familiar to Gavin called out. Tina. Nines looked around, panicking, trying to figure out how to not be seen. He'd never make it back to the ocean quick enough, so he grabbed the towel Gavin had abandoned behind him and tried to cover his tail with it. That, of course, didn't work at all. The towel was big enough for Gavin to sit on it but not to cover a 3 foot fish tail. Nines turned his head and met Tina's stare with a stare of his own.

"Gavin, tell me I didn't come here to see what you were doing here everyday to find you playing Monopoly with a merman.", she spoke in disbelief.

Panic flashed across Nines' face and without thinking he launched himself onto Gavin's lap and snaked his arms around his waist, holding onto Gavin like he could be taken away from him any moment. The human stared at him with wide eyes as his cheeks flushed with embarassment.

"Sorry, I panicked.", Nines apologised.

Gavin nodded. His heart was racing and there was that wonderful fluttery feeling in his stomach that he was so used to around Nines. He turned his head to face Tina and said: "You didn't find me playing Monopoly with a merman.". Tina didn't look convinced. Of course.

"Yeah, you found him getting absolutely destroyed in Monopoly by a merman.", Nines said, making Tina laugh.

She sat down next to them and demanded: "Tell me everything.".

"Well, I got caught in a fishing net and Gavin freed me. Then we met again here and everyday since.", Nines explained, while carefully getting off of Gavin's lap, to Gavin's disappointment.

"Yeah, Nines wanted to get to know me after I saved his ass and I agreed to meet him here everyday.", Gavin rephrased what Nines had just said. Nines snorted.

"This is like a gay Ariel story minus the sea witch and the disapproving dad.", Tina laughed, "So when's the wedding?".

"Shut the fuck up, Tina.", Gavin said, shooting her a look that said 'can you not?'.

"There is a disapproving brother though.", Nines commented, pretending not to hear the wedding comment but slightly blushing because of it all the same.

"And now there's an approving best friend.", Tina replied. She got up from the ground and continued: "Well. I'll leave you to it. It was nice meeting you, Nines.".

"It was nice meeting you too.", the merman responded. They said their goodbyes and then they were alone again. 

"Sorry about her. She probably thinks I'm in love with you or something. She always gets that in her head when I meet a guy.", a nervous laugh escaped Gavin's lips.

Nines hesitated for a moment before softly asking: "Well, are you?".

Gavin's head jerked to his left where Nines was sitting. He opened his mouth to say something but the words just wouldn't come to him. Yes, he was. He knew he was. But the words wouldn't leave his mouth. So he closed his mouth again and nodded.

Nines' expression softened and he cupped Gavin's face with his right hand, slowly caressing his cheek with his thumb. "I feel the same way.", he confessed.

Gavin just stared at him, dumbfounded for a few seconds. The fluttery feeling was suddenly more intense than it had ever been and his heart was beating hard against his ribcage. When he regained a little bit of his composure, his lips curled into a smile and he asked: "Can I kiss you?". Nines worldlessly leaned in and pressed their lips together. 

A delighted sigh slipped from Gavin's mouth at the feeling of the other man's soft lips on his and his eyes fell shut. He could feel Nines smile into the kiss as Gavin put his arms around his neck.

After a while Nines pulled away, keeping their faces close to each other and, with the biggest smile on his face, asked: "Will you be my boyfriend? I know it's not going to be easy considering you can't take me anywhere but-".

Gavin chuckled and interupted him: "Of course.", before pulling Nines in for another kiss, the Monopoly game long forgotten.


End file.
